Justice Department investigates Google Books

TgDaily, 29th April 2009

The US Justice Department is to investigate whether there are antitrust implications in Google'a arrangement with publishers on Book Search.

According to the New York Times, Justice Department attorneys have consulted with groups that are against the settlement as well as alerting the Association of American Publishers that an investigation is under way.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the feds will make a case against the settlement, which in any case is still within the jurisdiction of a court.

Google scans books from a number of libraries which are then displayed in Book Search and it's that practice that authors and publishers object to - breaching their copyrights.